Blog Readability -- I don't think so!

Okay, I'm smart, I think, but there is NO WAY my blog is rated "Genius" even though that's what the Blog Readability test says.

On the other hand, my brother's blog is usually over my head (many times I have no idea what he's talking about -- he uses really big words) and they say his blog is Junior High Level.

I don't think so....

Principal Participation

When you have the opportunity to participate in a special day at school, you should always try to. It makes life fun for the kids and breaks up the monotony of the regular school week.

Having said that, I want to thank the PRINCIPALS at my school for going "all out" and dressing up on our Favorite Children's Book Character day in celebration of Children's Book Week.

Twitter

So, I've got this Twitter account, and I gotta tell you, I don't get it. Not really. Why does anyone care what I'm doing? Are we really that bored? Yet here I sit, trying to find people to follow. I'm a sucker, what can I say? Look here and find out.

Podcasting -- I DID IT!

I actually created, exported, and uploaded my very first podcast! (And YES, it will be episodic!) (I loaded it on PowerMediaPlus but I don't know how to load it here.)

I decided to make an SAT Vocabulary Podcast for our school since MISD is giving us the words each week. I'd like to turn it into a competition for the students, so that they can make the podcasts themselves. Whoever has the best sentence using their SAT words gets to create the podcast that week. I think they will like it.

We'll have to see, but as for me, I may never shut up now! :)

To Block or Not to Block

As we work through our 23 Things, I've heard lots of complaints about our district's use of software to block our access to certain websites. Doug Johnson, author of The Blue Skunk Blog has a great article on the issue.

What I've learned about our program is this, WE (as teachers, librarian, etc.) are not blocked from the sites, but must use our "override" passwords to get to the sites we want. Only very few sites are actually BLOCKED from anyone's use (and for good reason -- you don't need to look at nudity while you're at work). The problem comes from the fear and frustration of overriding a site.

Some fear they will "get in trouble" if they override a site they need; while others are so frustrated by the steps to override that they just don't do it. I'm not sure there is an easy answer. I understand the need to "protect" our students, but at the same time, we should be teaching them how to protect themselves.

Is it too early?

I was listening to a favorite radio station yesterday, and at 12:30 p.m. they became an all Christmas music station. They said they would play Christmas music all the time from yesterday through Christmas Day.

Personally, I LOVE Christmas music, was even thinking about putting my cds back in my car to listen to when no one was around, but is it too early for a radio station to start playing it? It's the first week of November. We haven't even had Thanksgiving yet.

I'll confess that I'm one of those that complains about the Christmas decorations in the stores before Halloween is done, so I don't know the answer. BUT, secretly, I'm tickled to have my Christmas music on my drive to work every day!

Google Reader & Calendar

In earlier posts I had some problems with links and wondering if I could upload my calendar.

Now I've found out that I can link to my Public Page for my shared feeds, AND I learned that when I make changes to my calendar, it automatically changes in my blog (just like my avatar).

WHEW!

My RSS Reader -- Thing #9

I'm using the Google Reader because most of my "stuff" is Google related. It's nice to have it loaded on my iGoogle page so I can see if I have any items to read when I load my home page. Every thing is on one page and that makes it quick and easy. Love it!

The easiest blog search for me, is the Google reader's browse feature. It's already there on the page and I can use keyword searches for what I'm interested in. I think Technorati was the most difficult, but just because I wasn't paying attention. When I first when out there to look at it, I didn't realize I was looking at "posts" instead of "blogs" and that had me baffled until I looked at the top of the page and figured out where I was.

The Suprglu site for School Library Journal had a lot of good feeds on it and I liked how it was all in one place. I added some of the Edublogs Award Winners because I knew they would be good to watch. One of those was HeyJude which won Best Librarian Blog.

Of all my work-related feeds, my favorite is Unshelved, which showcases a comic strip about libraries. Many of my shared items come from this funny quick feed! (They also have really cool t-shirts and bumper stickers!)

Now that I know what to look for, I've started searching for the RSS feed when I go to some of my favorite websites to see if I can add them to my reader. One example is KnowledgeNews. I was getting their information in my email and that was sometimes a hassle. Now I can take a quick look at what they have and delete whatever doesn't interest me.

This has been the best "thing" I've learned so far on this journey.